Protecting the 14ers is a long-term challenge that requires long-term funding. CFI’s most recent “14er Report Card” outlines $18.4 million in needed work to bring all routes up to long-term sustainable conditions–$12.8 million for new summit trails and a further $5.6 million in the reconstruction of existing routes. The report represents two additional summers of detailed, foot-by-foot, GPS-based trail inventories and now covers 56 14er routes, including all standard route and some secondary routes on USFS and BLM-managed peaks. Additional information on the report shows the changes CFI has made on 17 routes since the initial inventories were conducted.
We need your help to ensure that CFI has the financial resources to continue this important stewardship work over the next 25 years. Current and former CFI Directors have committed a $25,000 challenge pool that was used to match the first $25,000 in donations received to CFI’s “General Endowment”. 2019 was CFI’s 25th Anniversary, so we came up with the “25 for 25” theme. This fund will spin off money every year (usually 5% of the endowment’s total value) to provide stability for CFI’s on-going operations in the years and decades ahead.
People interested in contributing to the 25 for 25 matching endowment campaign can send a check to CFI’s offices or can donate online. Please write “Endowment” on the check or in the “Tribute Name” field of the online transaction.
Kimberly Appelson Memorial Endowed Fund
A $50,000 gift made in February 2012 by Larry and Barbara Appelson of Naperville, Ill. seeded an endowment designed to support Colorado Fourteeners Initiative’s summer internship for aspiring natural resource protection professionals. In recognition of this generous gift, the internship was renamed the Kimberly Appelson Memorial Outdoor Leadership Internship in memory of the Appelson’s daughter, a 14er hiker who died in a 2010 rafting accident on the Arkansas River near Buena Vista, CO.
Each year, CFI seeks to hire up to two Kimberly Appelson Memorial Outdoor Leadership Interns to assist with leading CFI’s Adopt-a-Peak volunteer groups on trail maintenance and restoration projects on Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks. The internship positions are excellent opportunities to gain experience in outdoor group leadership skills, trail maintenance, and alpine restoration.
The internship is named after Kimberly Appelson, who was born and raised in the suburban Chicago area but vacationed frequently as a child throughout the western United States and Canada on family hiking and skiing trips. Following her graduation from the University of Iowa in May 2009, the lure of the western mountains drew Kimberly back to spend six months repairing and maintaining Forest Service trails in central Montana as part of a Montana Conservation Corps crew. Later that year Kimberly moved to Breckenridge to wait tables and improve her skiing in hopes of becoming a ski patroller. When the snow melted, she worked as a whitewater rafting guide on the Arkansas River, spending her free time climbing the nearby Sawatch Range 14er peaks. She aspired to one day summit all 54 Colorado Fourteeners. However, on July 11, 2010, Kimberly perished in a rafting accident near Frog Rock while rafting the Arkansas River with friends. She was 23.
People interested in contributing to the endowment can send a check to CFI’s offices or can donate online. Please write “Appelson Endowment” on the check or in the “Tribute Name” field of the online transaction.
Nicholas Feinstein Memorial Endowed Fund
Nick was a senior at the Pennsylvania State University studying Enterprise Technology Integration in the College of Information Sciences and Technology. He died in an avalanche while skiing with his father in Colorado on December 31, 2022. He was to begin working at a finance and technology company in Denver after graduating and received his degree posthumously in the spring of 2023. He was 22 years old.
Nick was a talented, smart, thoughtful, funny, and genuinely caring human being. He had a driven and adventurous spirit, and from a young age demonstrated a deep curiosity and passion for life. Always the outdoorsman, he spent as much time as possible skiing, mountain climbing, fishing, and exploring. He had climbed 25 of Colorado’s 14ers and planned to climb them all. Nick was also an excellent technologist, chef, gamer, and soccer player. And he loved his cat, Bella.
Lessons learned from Nick:
- Keep a sense of adventure in your heart. Experience the world around you. Play. Enjoy life. Try something new and out of your comfort zone. Learn to be present.
- Regularly experience nature and the outdoors. Colorado is one of the most amazing states in the country. Enjoy what this beautiful State has to offer. Go for a hike to view the wildflowers, smell the trees and earth, and spend time by a stream seeing how the water flows over the rocks. Nick also loved the ocean. Explore a secluded beach and go rock and shell hunting, spend time in the waves, maybe go fishing.
- Be kind. Be thoughtful and caring to others. Empathize. Keep love and compassion close to your heart.
People interested in contributing to the endowment can send a check to CFI’s offices or can donate online. Please write “Feinstein Endowment” on the check or in the “Tribute Name” field of the online transaction.
